Week 5 - Injured...

No one wants to be injured during training, no one.  This breaks my heart but I had to skip my long run on Saturday (of Week 4) because I have a groin injury - classy, I know.

We're thinking the injury happened when I fainted last week.  I was giving blood and I fell out of a chair to the floor.  My entire left side was sore the next day, and it's pretty likely I strained the tendon in my groin in the process of going from chair to floor.

I ran 5 miles with my running group on Thursday night and felt fine.  Then Friday morning when I woke up I had miserable pain.  I was working at the Dr.'s office Friday and I described my symptoms to one of the PA's and he said I have an injury.  He would advise patients to stop physical activity for 4-6 weeks.  Almost in tears, I told him there is no way I have 4-6 weeks to recover.  He prescribed some pain meds and I thanked him, finding little solace in the answers.  One of my co-workers said, "You are a true athlete", based on my response.    

Later that day I e-mailed Monica, the head of the Naperville Running Company Group, and told her about my injury.  She told me to take 2 weeks off, while still continuing to do cardio that would not irritate the injury.  A 2 week break was still devastating, but much more realistic to hear.  She also told me it is early enough in training that I won't be losing much time - her e-mail ended with the words:  Don't panic.  Panicking is exactly what I was/have been doing, but it was helpful to hear.

Saturday was awful to not meet at 6:30am to run 8 miles with my group.  I woke up at the same time I normally would to get ready to run and just cried.  This coming Thursday (my birthday) I was supposed to run with my group and then go out for drinks to celebrate after.  Now I will just be meeting my group all clean and showered in downtown Naperville after they all run, as opposed to going out all sweaty and in my Nike running clothes with them.   Sad.

I biked last night, that was my first round of cardio since Thursday.  It felt okay, I went really slow though.  Today, there is a dull pain in my tendon, which I am trying to ignore.  I will ice it today, and try some more cardio tonight.    

Thank you for the kind words.  I've already had a great amount of support - I even have a card sitting on my desk that tells me "I'm sure you'll be back out there with us on the trail in no time!"  For everyone's sanity - I hope so!